Month: January 2015

I DO NOT SUPPLY EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR CEO’S. PLEASE READ THE POST FOR DETAILS ON WHERE TO FIND THEM!

A guest post from Marcus Williamson, Editor of ceoemail.com Want to contact a CEO? This site is not affiliated with ceoemail.com in anyway. Requests for CEO contact details will not be provided on this The Complaining Cow website. Go to ceoemail.com you’ll find contact details there! If CEOemail.com does not have the address or it is out of date please email the site. Marcus will find the correct one for you. I cannot do this.

Why and when should I email the CEO?
So, you’ve got a problem with a company’s product or service. You have tried emailing and calling customer services and got nowhere so far. Is it time to email the CEO and why would you want to do so?

The time to involve the CEO will vary on a case-by-case basis. In my experience, if you have not received a reply from an initial customer service enquiry within 7 days, then it is time to escalate. If you have called customer service and they have promised a call-back but not honoured the promise, then again it is time to escalate. Likewise, if customer service have responded but have not resolved the issue to your satisfaction, then it’s time to go to the top.

The CEO is the Chief Executive Officer of the organisation. The CEO is ultimately responsible for the day-to-day running of the organisation and the people who comprise it. The CEO can make a difference to your consumer issue by making decisions that others, in customer services, often cannot make because they are not empowered to do so. The CEO also knows the best person to whom issues should be delegated, if necessary.

The key is to establish who is the most senior person within the organisation who has executive power to resolve your consumer issue: The power to execute actions and to ensure that they are correctly performed. These are the people who can make a difference to your consumer issue. A direct approach to the CEO, when necessary, can bypass “customer service” and the unwieldy procedures and processes that prevent your issue from being dealt with effectively. It is worth remembering that the top person in an organisation may have a title other than Chief Executive Officer, depending on the type of organisation and its geographical location. You might also find other titles being used:

Organisation

Title

Company

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Company

Managing Director or General Manager

Company

Executive Chairman

Newspaper

Editor

TV/Radio station

Controller

University

Vice Chancellor or Principal

School

Headteacher or Principal

Hospital Trust

Chief Executive

Union

General Secretary

Prison

Governor

Hotel

General Manager

Museum or Gallery

Director or Curator

About the Author
Marcus Williamson is the editor of ceoemail.com, a consumer information website which can help you resolve issues by taking them to the top of the organisation.

Comment from the Complaining Cow
How does it work? The site lists the email contact details for the CEOs of many major companies. Marvellous. Blooming marvellous. If the company isn’t listed, email him ceoemail@connectotel.com I am honoured to call Marcus a friend. I have only met him the once but you’ll see he’s thanked in my book because of all his support when I came to the final stages and continues to assist me! Rather too many of those CEOs email addresses are there thanks to me requesting them over the last 5 years! The site is, quite simply, brilliant. Use it and contact a CEO who hasn’t ensured a good enough customer service team. Make sure you follow all the tips before you contact him/her!

Regular readers of this blog will know of my history complaining about Tesco, taking the giant to court and meeting the new CEO etc. See here for all the links to Tesco posts

When I met some of the team in late November I met Helen Wilson who is Head of Quality Evaluation at Tesco. I asked her to write me a guest post on how Tesco test products and how YOU can join in. I’ve just signed up! I’m waiting to hear if they accept me, there will be trouble if they don’t!

Putting the finest* products on your plate(and around your house!)

As a business that serves millions of people across the world every week, we have a huge responsibility to make sure our food is of the highest quality and at a great price.

I’m one of around 75 people who work in Tesco’s Quality Evaluation Team, and it’s our task to make sure that all of our food and drink is properly tested and scrutinised. The team comes from a wide range of backgrounds, including economists, scientists and chemists. I graduated with a degree in Chemistry 20 years ago and initially specialised in the development of Health & Beauty products before moving into the world of consumer testing nearly ten years ago.

We’re all passionate about food and there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing a product we’ve tested and improved sitting on our shelves. We take a huge interest in the products we sell and we’re always on the lookout for products that we could improve for customers, even when cooking our dinner or driving the kids to school.

We all really enjoyed showing The Complaining Cow around one of our testing facilities last month and both Helen and I thought that you might like to know more about how customers can share feedback with us and get involved in our testing process.

Each week, we invite customers into our four Product Assessment Centres across the UK to take part in product testing. These testers don’t need any special qualifications; all we ask is that they don’t have any food based allergies, are not pregnant or on antibiotics and that they haven’t taken part in another panel in the past two weeks. There are four of these across the country, in Perth, Camberley, Cheshunt and Shoreham.

We also have a specially trained customer panel which works in our Hertfordshire HQ at Cheshunt; (picture of this group meeting below). These testers are hand-picked for their excellent sense of smell and taste and their passion for food and drink. Their role is to give feedback on our new product ranges, helping us to fine-tune our products so that we can make sure that every mouthful strikes the right balance of flavours.

One area where we are currently looking for customers to get involved is by joining our group of online testers, working from the comfort of your own home. As a tester, we will invite you to take part in testing products which you regularly buy. These positions are open to anyone – as long as you’re over 18, have a Clubcard and live in the UK. To apply to join the panel click here.

These customers, as well as our rigorous world-leading testing programme for Household, Petcare, Clothing and Health & Beauty products, help us to make sure that everything you buy from Tesco lives up to the standards we, and you, rightfully expect. For more details on some of our favourite food products, take a look at our Real Food website

Regular readers of my blog know of my history with Tesco. However, I am becoming increasingly aware that when people are looking for how to complain about Tesco they are finding my blog. Interestingly it is the post that started this blog back in the Summer of 2012 to which most people are directed and not the ones where I took the giant to court and won! I get enquiries and comments etc. about my dealings with Tesco and thought it was time to provide a clear history of posts, so here you are:

And so we carry on, I’ll be keeping an eye on Tesco, will be a looooooooooooong time before I stop complaining methinks! In the meantime if you want help complaining about Tesco or any other company have a search around the site at tips and stories etc. and also

EHIC
In the EU you should get an EHIC (replaced the old E11). You’ll either pay nothing for medical assistance, or at least reduce the level of upfront costs that you have to claim back later. Showing the card can reduce red tape and can help save time and hassle when trying to claim money back. Some insurance policies expect you to have the EHIC and won’t pay for any expenses that the card would have covered. Sometimes the insurer will waive the excess if you have used your card. The EHIC covers required treatment for a pre-existing or chronic medical condition such as asthma or diabetes. Many insurers will not cover this and there are only a few companies/policies that will cover existing conditions.

Why you need travel insurance as well as EHIC
You should always take out travel insurance when going abroad. Use a comparison website and check the cover very carefully. You do still need it in addition to the EHIC because the EHIC is usually only accepted at state-funded hospitals and if you need assistance urgently and can only get to a private clinic, you will not be able to use the EHIC. This article on the Gov.uk website provides good reasons why you should always take out holiday insurance regarding health, even more reason than the EHIC does not cover mountain rescue! Where the state-funded treatment is not entirely free, insurers will usually pay the outstanding costs.

The EHIC only covers medical costs so you need your insurance for any extra accommodation costs and repatriation.

If any state funded medical establishment refuse the card it is in breach of European rules. Should your EHIC be refused, try to get proof that you presented it at the time, as this could be key to getting the excess waived by your insurer. If you believe you’ve been incorrectly charged, contact the Department for Work and Pensions which may provide some reimbursement.

The bare minimum cover you need is for cancellation, curtailing of the holiday for a variety of reasons, illness/death at home or abroad, damage to home, called as a witness for court etc. You should also get property cover. You will want to be covered by delayed departure and/or luggage. Although in some circumstances you will want to claim from the airline directly. Always read the small print as to what is covered and what isn’t before purchasing!

Take out your travel insurance at the same time as booking your holiday!

Costs abroad
Your credit card accident cover, home insurance, (EHIC) or private health cover is not necessarily adequate. An emergency abroad can be enormously costly! For example if you need to be returned to the UK it could cost you thousands of pounds without sufficient insurance, e.g:

It is usually cheaper to buy travel insurance yourself rather than using the site where you are booking your holiday. (Use one of the many comparison websites). Remember that it is now illegal for any site to automatically add any additional payments which appear as a default option.

Claiming
Notify the insurance company as soon as possible of your wish to claim. If you are dissatisfied with the offer or rejection follow the tips and outline your reasoning. If you remain dissatisfied contact the Financial Ombudsman.